Have you ever regretted something you posted on social
media?
Don’t feel bad, 57%
of Americans who use social media have posted something they regret
afterwards. And that’s just adults. Now jump into the brain of a 10-year-old.
Yes, a 10-year-old. Nielsen research labels
age 10 as the “mobile adoption sweet spot” because the average age a child
receives a smartphone today is 10.3 years-old. How is a 10-year-old supposed to
make wise decisions on their favorite social media apps like Snapchat,
Instagram or FriendO? (especially when COPPA—Child
Online Privacy Protection Act—regulates that you have to be at least 13 to be
on any of those three apps).
Today’s young people don’t think for more than 3 seconds
before they post, press SEND, or accept a friend request (the more friends the
better, right?). Sadly, the pics they post, the rants they engage in and the
connections they make often lead to dire consequences.
So how can we help young people think before they click?
Here are two conversation we need to have with young people
about the devices they know and love: the
friends they “friend”, and the pics
they post.
The Friends they
“Friend”
Consider SnapMaps
for a moment. Snapmaps is a cool feature on Snapchat that allows you to see
where your friends are on a map at any moment. Of course, they can also see where you are at any moment. This is a
lot of fun when you want to see which of your friends are hanging out at the
place you’re hanging... but consider the ramifications for a moment.
A 13-year-old girl finishes hanging out with her friends at
the mall, texts mom for a ride, and waits for her by the exit.
QUESTION: Who else knows she’s standing there?
ANSWER: Unless she opted to be in Ghost Mode, or took the
time to go into her Snap preferences and select only a custom group of friends
to be able to see her, then the answer is every
one of her friends can see her exact location on a map. This begs the
question:
Has she met every one of her friends face to face?
Are you sure that the 16-year-old guy she met online and
“friended” last week is actually a 16-year-old… or is he the 44-year-old
pedophile sitting in his car at the mall watching for any likely “friends” to
wander outside by themselves?
This happens all the time. In fact, whenever I address young
people I share story after story of “friends” who didn’t turn out to be friends
at all. In fact, in my
new book to teenagers on this subject I share a frightening true story
about a guy the police called “creepy underwear guy” who used young girls’
locations to sneak into their bedrooms and steal their underwear. Whenever I
tell this story I always see girls slowly pulling out their phones and checking
their privacy settings.
Nobody wants creepy
underwear guy in their room!
We need to help young people rethink who they’re
“friending.”
But that’s not all they need to rethink…
The Pics They’re
Posting
I hear it all the time from school principals when I show up
to speak at a school assembly.
“Last
week I practically had to shut down the school because of the pictures that
were being passed around. Kids couldn’t even concentrate on school because
everyone had seen the pictures!”
It happens all the time (in fact, it happened at a Christian
school I worked with). It’s like this: Boy convinces girl to send him a pic.
(After all, it disappears, right?) Girl sends pic. Boy screenshots
“disappearing” pic. Boy and girl eventually break up. Boy sends pic to all of
his friends: “Look at this tramp!”
Girl is devastated because everyone is giggling and pointing as she walks
around campus.
Young people don’t think through the permanence of their
posts. They use an app that brags, “the pics disappear” and they interpret that
as “no consequences.” It doesn’t take long for them to discover a simple
screenshot takes away the “temporary.”
We need to help kids understand: nothing you post is temporary. So
don’t post anything you don’t want your principal, Grandma, your future boss…
and Jesus seeing (Jesus is on Insta, you know).
Are you helping kids think before they click?
_____________________________
Jonathan McKee is the author of over 20 books including the brand new, The Teens Guide to Social Media & Mobile Devices: Wise Posting in an Insecure World. Jonathan speaks to parents and leaders across the country about today’s teens, and addresses the “smartphone generation” directly in school assemblies and events worldwide.
Check out his Youth Ministry Site: http://www.thesource4ym.com
Check out his Parent Ministry Site: http://www.thesource4parents.com
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